LIBYA. 'DON'T FORGET US' BEGS JAILED BULGARIAN NURSE IN LIBYA

"Don't forget us," Bulgarian nurse Kristiana Vulcheva who was behind bars accused of infecting Libyan children with the AIDS virus begged during a prison visit by the French foreign minister.
"We are innocent," said Vulcheva, who was on the verge of tears as she sat next to Philippe Douste-Blazy inside the Jdeida prison on the outskirts of Tripoli.
"We know very well we are hostages of a political witch (hunt)," said Vulcheva, who along with four colleagues and a Palestinian doctor had spent nearly seven years in prison and could face death by firing squad if their appeal was rejected.
"We are exhausted, psychologically exhausted," she added.
The six had been sentenced to death in May 2004 over a controversial case in which they were convicted of deliberately infecting 426 Libyan children with HIV. Fifty-one of the children had since died of AIDS.
"We are innocent, (just like) the children contaminated. We are victims, too," said Palestinian doctor Ahmed Ashraf al-Hadjudi. On December 25, 2005, Libya's supreme court ordered a retrial, effectively overturning the death sentences and giving new hope that the prisoners could one day be released.